


Star Maps

by Guardian_Rex



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Bonding, DannyMay 2020, Gen, Lore - Freeform, Psychopomps, Sky - Freeform, Stars, doors, shameless lore dumping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:35:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24272185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Guardian_Rex/pseuds/Guardian_Rex
Summary: Danny never fully thought to question his parents' research on ghosts, they were the expert parapsychologists and he was busy fighting the paranormal.  But, he gets a chance to have a chat with the first ghost who ever stuck his neck out for him and explicitly called him a friend, and he learns some things.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson, Danny Fenton & Wulf
Comments: 18
Kudos: 182





	1. Chapter 1

Parapsychologists Jack and Maddie Fenton have learned every bit of ghost-related knowledge they could without diving into occult rumors, theology, and mysticism. They learned with biases firmly at their foundations, one due to family teachings and the other due to a religion abandoned but not without its marks left. One preconception that neither parapsychologist has even attempted to test and prove or disprove is the concept that every ghost exists because of an Obsession, and that they will seek to fulfill this obsession to the point of self-destruction and/or complete disregard for others and the loss of who they once were. This is only part of the truth.

Danny learned more of the truth in a talk with Wulf. The werewolf ghost - who was apparently a psychopomp and other things Danny needed time to  _ process _ \- explained in Esperanto that Walker had fallen to obsession, which had Danny confused. “I thought all ghosts have an Obsession?”

Wulf shook his head with a huff. “ _ Who taught you that? _ ” Danny was frankly impressed with how quickly he’d learned Esperanto.

“My parents, they’re scientists who study ghosts.” Danny scratched the back of his head. “They also hunt ghosts. They said that obsessions hold ghosts together, give them a reason for existing.”

“ _ Bah, hunters will take only what justifies them from the truth. What gives a ghost reason to exist is passion - passion enough to refuse death! My own passion, for instance, has been traveling and freedom and for that I became a psychopomp, opening doorways and bridges among the Realms when Bridge Spirits like yourself weren’t around to do so.” _ Wulf swiped a claw through the air and Danny watched it rip like cotton to reveal the emerald and black swirls of the Zone. The Realms?

“I have  _ so many _ questions. Why do you call the Zone the Realms? What do you mean Bridge Spirits? What’s the difference between a passion and an obsession?” Wulf chuckled and Danny felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment when a huge paw patted his head.

“ _ A passion is something that drives you, keeps you going, but you are still able to do things beyond it. If a passion is allowed to overwhelm you, swallow up all that you are, it becomes an obsession and you lose much of who you were. Walker, for example, is dead. His passion was the upholding of order and peace, but he allowed this passion to go too far. At first, he simply locked people up for doing things that were against the laws of his time and place on Earth, and I remember even helping him track down some awful people that had escaped into a living Realm. But, someone had gotten hold of a book of the Old Laws from when the usurper ruled over the Realms. _ ”

“The Usurper?” Danny tilted his head, ectoplasm flowing between his fingers and turning into something like clay that he kneaded and worked while Wulf spoke.

“ _ Death herself was a just and benevolent ruler, her own passion being the balance of energies amongst all the realms. She was not particularly kind but nor was she cruel, and she had many sons who personified various kinds of death. One of them was a Peaceful Death himself and would lay to rest those who had fallen so far into an obsession they could not satisfy that they had gone irreparably mad, as well as guiding souls from one life to the next. The first psychopomp. Another of her sons, however, was the cruel and violent slaughterings and conquerings of War. We call him not by his name, but simply as the Usurper, or the Matricidal, for when he stole the crown. _

_ “The laws he made were harsh and cruel and unreasonable, the oppression of a conquerer upon the conquered. And Walker, upon finding some of the old laws made to govern the Realms, set about enforcing them himself. One of those laws banned psychopomps from maintaining the health of the Realms as we do, for the Mother Killer would seek to conquer all the Realms once they died. And so, I was captured by a Walker who I had not seen in some decades and was shocked to see how changed he was.” _ Wulf growled and bristled, his claws extending slowly.

Danny reached up and wrapped Wulf in a one-armed hug, rubbing his back. It was like comforting his dad if his dad was a bit hairier. Eventually, Wulf calmed down enough that his claws were put away, and Danny cleared his throat. “So uh, the Realms? My folks have just been calling it the Ghost Zone.” At that, Wulf laughed loud and hard, the sound echoing as though they were in a long dark cave.

“ _ The Gho- wow. People can come up with the silliest of names for things. No, the land beyond is called the Infinite Realms and has been since the time of Queen Death. It is called so because it is, eh, the top and bottom of everything. This world you live in, for instance, is a Realm, as was the Realm I was born in.” _

“You’re not from Earth?” Wulf shook his head with a grin. “So your Realm just has a bunch of werewolves in it instead of humans?”

“ _ All kinds of children of the moon, actually, but yes. I was born a wolf and died a wolf.” _

“I dunno how to tell ya this, but Wulf isn’t exactly the most original name for you, Mr. Fuzzball.”

“ _ How very true, Phantom, it’s not. _ ” Danny huffed and tossed his little model of Saturn at Wulf’s chest, laughing with him as it turned into mist. “ _ To answer your other question: a bridge spirit is what you are, Danny. A bridge between the Infinite Realms and your birth Realm. Through you and your portal, energy flows more smoothly and the decaying of your world will happen slower now.” _

Danny stared at Wulf for a good long few seconds with his head empty and face blank. “What?” It came out more as a statement but he swore it was a question.

“ _ The energy of life and death and existence flows through portals and bridges between the Realms. When a being dies, their energy returns to the Infinite Realms and if there is a psychopomp there to guide their soul they will be lead to a new Realm, or even to the same Realm at a different point in history. The portals can, however, also allow the energy to simply flow from the Infinite Realms inward to keep the living Realm from running out. Typically, however, that energy flows through Bridge Spirits. This is why you can open portals all throughout your Realm. _ ”

Danny pointed at himself, and Wulf nodded slowly. The amusement on Wulf’s face was only a little appreciated because even though he didn’t need to breathe like this Danny still felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. “I… can make portals?” Wulf nodded again, another laugh on his lips. “Can… can you show me how?”

The giant fluffy ferryman of the dead stood up and pulled Danny into a bone-crushing hug, tail wagging up a storm.  _ “Of course, pup! Where do you wish to go first? We must have an idea of the destination before we make a path. _ ”

Danny looked up at the night sky to the bright, full moon and pointed at it. “I think I know what my Passion is, Wulf. Think we can make it there?”

“ _ In your Realm, for your passion? Without question!” _ It was amazing, the leaps and bounds parapsychology might make if an expert simply spoke with a ghost. It got Danny a door to the moon, after all, and there wasn’t much he was more passionate about than the stars.  



	2. Clearing up the Sky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Danny told his friends about Passions and his new powers, they clear've been thinking about it

“So Danny,” Tucker said one day while they were finishing up patrol, a few nights after Danny’s conversation with Wulf. “You said that ghosts have Passions and their powers are like, themed around them, right?”

“Yyyeeeessss…” Danny tilted his head, eyes sweeping left and right as he searched the streets for any lingering malevolent ghosts. “Why?”

“I just remembered you telling me about how the biggest threat our telecommunications satellites is debris and junk in low orbit that Nasa hasn’t figured out how to safely remove.” Danny felt a pulse of warmth in his core hearing that Tucker still actually listened to him infodump. “Would you be able to use your space powers to call that space junk down to save our satellites in space?”

Danny stopped flying, doing the calculations in his head for how much energy it would take to bring the satellites down to him. Then he shook his head and grinned, turning toward the sky. “Let’s see, huh?” Ignoring the chatter on the Fenton Phones about how he probably should stop and think about this, Danny reached up and up and up, while letting the energy inside of him build up and flow faster and stronger like a river. He found what he was looking for so fast he nearly missed it, missed  _ them _ , the pieces of Earth that had been shot into her sky and yet deserved so very much to be back with her and with him. So, he  _ pulled _ .

There was never a greater strain on Danny’s powers before than catching the sheer quantity of things he had summoned to himself, all of it dancing in orbit around him like planets around the sun or moons around a planet. The strain was mostly on his attention, pulling more and more things that were not in use by humanity and yet were taking up space in their view of the heavens. He pulled until Tucker’s voice rang out near his little orbit as well as in his ear, and shook him out of his stupor. Keeping a hold on everything around him though, was a bit more of a strain now that he was paying attention to it.

“Stars,  _ fuck _ , I’m so sorry guys. Are you ok?” Sam glared at him, and Tucker let out a sigh that crackled over the Phones.

“Yes, you idiot, we’re fine! Are  _ you _ ok? We could barely get any of your attention for the past 20 minutes!” Danny could tell from the looks he was getting that there would be thorough thrashing the next time they trained together. “Now, where are you even gonna put all of this, you goofball?”

“Well, thanks to Boxy, there are plenty of abandoned warehouses in Amity.” Tucker grinned. “And hell, we can probably use this stuff. After all, what other teens can say they have metal and rocks from the sky?”


End file.
